Authors: Angela Rajchevska and Bjanka Stankovikj Former Prime Minister and current leader of SDSM, Zoran Zaev, will be challenged in the fourth constituency by Aleksandar Nikoloski, the right hand of the leader of VMRO-DPMNE. In the previous parliamentary elections, held in 2016, Zaev’s main opponent was the ex-leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, who managed to win by about 3 percent. The fourth constituency includes 19 municipalities from south and...

Authors: Angela Rajchevska and Bjanka Stankovikj SDSM Secretary General Ljupco Nikolovski and VMRO-DPMNE Undersecretary Igor Janushev are the locomotives of their parties to win as many seats in the Assembly as possible in the early parliamentary elections expected to be held this summer. Bekim Neziri from DUI and Bekim Tateshi from the AA-Alternative coalition are expected to be side players due to the small chances for their parties to...

Authors: Angela Rajchevska and Bjanka Stankovikj The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Radmila Shekjerinska, is leading the fifth constituency, together with the current MP, Jovan Mitreski. A holder of the VMRO-DPMNE list is the opera singer Igor Durlovski, DUI will be in Constituency 5 led by the speaker Talat Xhaferi and the coalition AA-Alternative with Surija Rashidi. All with rich political and institutional careers and fairly long...

Authors: Angela Rajchevska and Bjanka Stankovikj A constituency that covers the municipalities of northwest Macedonia as number six, and in this early election it will be led by the DUI and the Alliance for Albanians leaders, Ali Ahmeti and Ziadin Sela. Constituency 6 covers the territory of 11 municipalities: Tetovo, Gostivar, Tearce, Brvenica, Bogovinje, Vrapchishte, Zhelino, Jegunovce and Kichevo (part). Ahmeti has declared property worth 134, and Sela –...

Within the PEP project, SCOOP continues to publish the profiles of the holders of the electoral lists, with reference to their property status. Authors: Angela Rajchevska and Bjanka Stankovikj Neither at the second meeting did the leaders of the parliamentary parties agree on the date of the parliamentary elections. June, July or August – are the months when SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE are looking for a day when...

Author: Mirjana Vasileva Journalist Hristo Ivanovski believes that, despite the modern trends, there are still media outlets that are close to the government and the opposition. “As long as the media is influenced by different centers of power, there will be no professional journalism. The media is constantly targeting journalists to write commissioned texts or just read it, even though they themselves often do not know what the background...

Author: Mirjana Vasileva For the needs of this story we conducted a survey with 30 journalists from print and electronic media in the country, which was conducted between November 20 and December 20, 2019. According to the results of the survey, clientelist practices and corruption in the media existed during the previous and during the present government also. Most journalists responded affirmatively to the question of whether there were...

Author: Mirjana Vasileva Twelve printed editions this year got lucky for covering state-run printing costs from last year. That year, the number of printed media received government subsidies was down by one, with a total of 11 print publications receiving state aid. However, that amount was about 700,000 euros. Although the government, along with representatives of some of the media community, justified the distributions as being maximally transparent and...